The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2020 from our premium syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times and The Times of London.
Today we look at how 2020 completely changed office lives, sports most famous whistleblower, Germany's problem of far-right extremism, Naomi Campbell turns 50 and the history of the Space Station.
Did 2020 kill the office?
In recent years, it has been hard to imagine a time when the office wasn't central to our cities and central to our lives, it had developed an atmosphere as distinctive as the sports stadium or the cathedral.
Now, in a year of coronavirus-induced lockdowns, it seems likely that something has not just paused, but passed away. Offices will open again, but with new rules and with less importance.
Henry Mance of the Financial Times looks at if this is this the end of the water-cooler century.
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• Farewell to gummy bear jars: Offices get a virus safety makeover
• The long, unhappy history of working from home
Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov: 'Sport won't be clean. Never'
Across the world, the coronavirus pandemic still rages. How is the 61-year-old coping with the lockdown of recent weeks? "Weeks?" comes the muffled, incredulous response. "Years!"
Being in lockdown is nothing new for Grigory Rodchenkov. The former director of Moscow's anti-doping laboratory was the brains behind a vast conspiracy, a multiyear state-sanctioned doping programme to help Russia's athletes gain supremacy at the Olympic Games. Four years ago he turned whistleblower, having left behind his wife, son and daughter to flee alone to the US. Granted asylum last year, he lives in an unknown location within the country's witness protection programme.
Body bags and enemy lists: Plans for German 'Day X' show revival of far right
The plan sounded frighteningly concrete. The group would round up political enemies and those defending migrants and refugees, put them on trucks and drive them to a secret location.
Then they would kill them.
One member had already bought 30 body bags. More body bags were on an order list, investigators say, along with quicklime, used to decompose organic material.
On the surface, those discussing the plan seemed reputable. One was a lawyer and local politician, but with a special hatred of immigrants. Two were active army reservists. Two others were police officers, including Marko Gross, a police sniper and former parachutist who acted as their unofficial leader.
They called themselves Nordkreuz, or Northern Cross.
Germany has woken up to a problem of far-right extremism in its elite special forces. But the threat of neo-Nazi infiltration of state institutions is much broader.
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• As neo-Nazis seed military ranks, Germany confronts 'an enemy within'
• In Germany, confronting shameful legacy essential part of police training
Naomi Campbell at 50: I don't like the word 'retire'
Original, powerful, unforgettable, Naomi Campbell made her groundbreaking entrance into modelling in 1986 and has been fighting to change the fashion world ever since. Louis Wise rings the icon for a lively midnight phone call as she prepares to celebrate her 50th birthday — and big names in the fashion world share their memories.
The supermodel on turning 50 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
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• 11 things about Naomi Campbell
How the Space Station became a base to launch humanity's future
On November 2, 2000, three astronauts docked at the International space station and began a four-and-a-half month stay in orbit.
Humans have been living off the planet ever since.
Initially derided as a poster child for government waste, the outpost in orbit is now seen as a linchpin for future economic activity in space.
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• 50 years ago, three astronauts survived Apollo 13. Could disaster strike again?
